


must be the season of the witch

by kissmesexybatman



Series: ties that bind [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU
Genre: Batfamily Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Jack-o'-lanterns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 03:23:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8429932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kissmesexybatman/pseuds/kissmesexybatman
Summary: Pumpkin carving with the Waynes





	

Bruce tried not to flinch as a knife flashed dangerously close to his face. “Damian,” he warned.

Damian looked up from his pumpkin, a scowl on his face. “It’s not cooperating.”

“So what, you’re going to stab it into compliance?” Dick laughed, shoving another handful of candy corn into his mouth. 

“I can’t believe you’re still eating that shit,” Jason said. Alfred had generously provided them with an entire bowl of the stuff, although Dick was the only one who seemed to actually enjoy it.

Stephanie nodded in agreement, taking another piece and chewing on it herself. “It’s awful. Like sugar bathed in candle wax and sadness.”

Jason gave her a horrified look. “Why are  _ you  _ still eating it?”

She spread her arms dramatically, nearly hitting Cass in the face. “Because it’s  _ there, _ Jason.”

Bruce fought back a smile. “How’s your pumpkin coming, Tim?” he asked.

Tim’s face was creased in concentration as he carefully followed the lines he’d traced onto his pumpkin with the tiny saw from the kit. “Almost done, but I keep making mistakes. This is  _ hard.” _

Damian scoffed. “Or you’re just incompetent.”

Tim glared at him. “You were literally  _ just  _ saying the same thing.”

“Obviously I was being modest.”

“That’ll be the day,” Barbara murmured from behind Bruce, and he looked down quickly at his own pumpkin to hide another smile.

Cass interjected before the argument could go any further. “I think I’m done.” Her brothers stopped squabbling to lean over and check out her pumpkin, a cat silhouette against the moon with cutouts for its eyes and whiskers. 

Stephanie ooh’d, leaning in close. “Let’s stick a candle in that baby.”

“We’ll light them all when everyone is finished,” Bruce reminded her, going back to carving a jagged-toothed mouth.

“You finished yours too fast,” Tim teased.

“Listen, it’s not my fault I’m stuck with a bunch of perfectionists, okay? I’m just a gal who likes to get things done.”

Barbara leaned forward and squinted at Steph’s jack-o-lantern. “What is that even supposed to be?”

Stephanie gave her a hurt look. “Obviously it’s a witch. See? There’s her nose.”

“Oh, yeah,  _ obviously.” _

“Get over here and fight me, Todd.”

Bruce sighed. “No fighting. That goes for all of you.”

“Hey, what did I do?” Dick protested.

Bruce just gave him a look. Dick only held his injured look for a moment before dissolving back into a grin and turning to Barbara.

“Sure you don’t wanna do one, Babs? They’re fun,” he sing-songed.

She gave him a look of fond exasperation. “Like I  _ already told you _ , I hate smelling like pumpkin. Besides, I think you had enough fun for both of us.” Dick’s pumpkin had been finished in a matter of minutes, as he quickly carved a face into the front and left the guts hanging out the mouth. He didn’t even bother cutting a top into it.

“It’s a tradition,” he insisted. Babs just shook her head.

Duke gave Dick’s messy creation a sidelong glance. “I don’t even think you can put a candle in there. It’s gonna cook.”

“That’s why we use electric lights,” Alfred told him, coming into the room with a tray full of mugs of hot apple cider. “Master Richard has carved the same…  _ design  _ every year.”

Dick leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head, still grinning. “What did I say? Tradition.” 

Jason elbowed him, hard. “Or laziness.”

“Ow!”

_ “No fighting,” _ Bruce said again, automatically. 

Jason gave him his best innocent look. “Who’s fighting?” It was his turn to get  _ the look _ from Bruce. 

“ _ Shakira, Shakira,”  _ Stephanie sang.

Tim snorted. “Oh my god, stop.”

It was exactly the wrong thing to say. She launched into a spirited rendition of  _ Hips Don’t Lie  _ at top volume. Jason joined in on the Spanish parts.

Cass solemnly placed her hand over Stephanie’s mouth after a minute. “Please, no more.”

Stephanie mumbled something and Cass’ face wrinkled in disgust. She took her hand back and wiped it on her shirt. “She _licked_ me.”

Steph, meanwhile, looked equally disgusted, scrubbing at her mouth. “You were covered in pumpkin.”

“This takes forever,” Jason complained, still stabbing away at his pumpkin with much less finesse than the others. “I knew I should have just used my gun.”

Dick snorted. “You can’t use bullets to carve a pumpkin. It would explode.”

Jason raised an eyebrow at him. “Wanna bet?”

Tim raised his hand. He’d set his jack-o-lantern aside, finished carving. “I’d take that.”

“Absolutely not,” Bruce growled as Dick opened his mouth.

“No fun,” Jason mumbled under his breath, spinning his knife a few times before sinking it back into the gourd.

Tim didn’t protest, but he had a calculating look on his face that Bruce didn’t like. He made a mental note to hide the spare pumpkins still sitting outside.

Dick changed the subject, thankfully. “How many pumpkins have you carved before, Jay?”

Jason hummed in thought for a moment. “Maybe two or three? My mom and I always celebrated Dia de los Muertos instead.” 

“Like with the sugar skulls and stuff?” Stephanie asked.

He snorted. “It’s a little more than that, but yeah, we made sugar skulls.”

“That’s so cool.”

He shrugged. “It’s easy. I can show you if you want.”

There was a chorus of yeses from his siblings. Jason fought back a wide smile. “Here, I’m finished.” He lifted his pumpkin up for everyone to see; it had a pair of slanted eyes, skeletal nose and a wide, narrow mouth of needle-thin teeth that looked a bit like stitches. 

“Spooky,” Tim complimented him, the others nodding agreement.

“Yeah, you’d never guess this is only the third jack-o-lantern you’ve ever carved,” Stephanie added. “This is solid fifth-pumpkin material.”

Alfred placed a mug down beside him and Bruce thanked him, ignoring Steph and Jason's bickering. The butler leaned over his shoulder, examining his pumpkin with a smile. “Very interesting design, Master Bruce.”

“I thought so.”

Barbara, still sitting behind him, leaned forward. She snorted as she saw it.

“What is it?” Dick asked, trying to see, practically flattening Babs in the process.

She shoved him back. “You’ll see it later.”

“Well, I’m done,” Duke announced, setting down his knife and lifting his pumpkin for everyone to see. It was a surprisingly skillful rendering of a hockey mask with a knife behind it.

_ “Friday the Thirteenth?”  _ Dick confirmed, and Duke nodded.

Jason pointed at Duke with his knife. “That movie is an insult to Jasons everywhere.”

Stephanie started laughing. “I’m totally painting all your helmets to look like hockey masks,” she choked out.

“I’ll help,” Tim volunteered, grinning.

Well, at least they weren’t _physically_  fighting, Bruce reflected, finishing the last eye on his own pumpkin. He set it aside, carefully, and used a rag to clean the pumpkin guts from his hands as Jason threatened Tim and Steph (again) in the background.

“Knock knock,” a new voice chimed in, and Kate stepped through the door. Her short red hair was wet with rain. “Sorry I’m late.”

There was a chorus of greetings. “You’re not late,” Bruce told her. “We’re just about finished.”

“Yeah, except for  _ someone, _ ” Stephanie snorted, shooting Damian a pointed look.

He ignored her, scraping at the surface of his pumpkin carefully.

“You can’t rush creativity, right?” Kate stepped over to join Babs and Dick on the couch. “Did I miss  _ Rocky Horror  _ yet?”

“Nope, that’s after pumpkins,” Dick told her, scooting over to make some room.

“Done,” Damian announced finally, lifting up his pumpkin. It was incredibly detailed, a crow in silhouette against a crescent moon. He had only cut through the pumpkin for the eye of the bird and the moon, instead scraping the surface away to make each individual feather of the bird. There were even a few stars sprinkled around.

Jason whistled. “Damn, kid, that’s pretty fuckin’ impressive.”

“Language.”

Jason mumbled something under his breath. It didn’t sound very polite.

Bruce was spared having to answer by Stephanie saying, “Let’s go light them up!”

Together, everyone picked up their pumpkins and trooped out into the hall to put on their coats and shoes. Alfred vanished into the kitchen for a moment, reappearing with a bag of battery-powered tealights. 

Out on the steps, they all spent a few minutes arranging their pumpkins (Bruce had to disperse another argument between Tim and Damian) before Alfred placed a light into each pumpkin, even Dick’s. The pile of pumpkin guts had moved outside with it. Once each pumpkin was lit, Alfred stepped back inside to turn out the porch light.

It was an impressive sight. With the lights inside, everyone’s pumpkin looked fantastic. Every feather on Damian’s crow glowed, and Dick reached out and ruffled his hair, praising it. Damian’s scowl couldn’t quite hide the pleased look in his eye.

Jason started laughing, pointing to Bruce’s pumpkin. “Are you serious?” he wheezed. The others joined in with his laughter as they noticed.

Bruce fought back his own smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he replied, voice perfectly calm.

His pumpkin had two flame-like eyes and a mouth that bore a shocking resemblance to a bat. The light inside cast a long, stretched out version of the design across the steps, a reverse of the Bat-signal. It look a long time for everyone to calm down.

Stephanie wiped a tear from under her eye. “Bossman, sometimes I think you’ve got the best sense of humor of all of us.”

“What gives you that impression?” he asked, wrapping an arm around Damian’s shoulders as they all started back inside.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! feedback fuels my writing soul, so feel free to drop a kudos or comment below.
> 
> huge shoutout to my friend [astrolas](http://astrolas.tumblr.com/) for the part about dick making a bet with jason over whether or not he can carve a pumpkin with a gun. (spoiler alert: he absolutely can.)
> 
> quick lil thing: i'm probably going to be doing several more drabbles as we move into the holiday season, and while i do have a few planned out already, i was thinking maybe i'd open it up to prompts? i can't promise i'll do all of them because school and work combined is a real ass kicker but feel free to drop me an idea below or in [a tumblr message](http://kissmesexybatman.tumblr.com/). at the very least you'll have my undying love and gratitude and we can yell about headcanons n stuff, so it's a real win-win, yes?
> 
> happy halloween!


End file.
